Topaz awoke suddenly, her head jerking from the pillow. She had taken a nap, hoping Alex would be there when she got up. He wasn’t. She hadn’t seen or talked to him since his hasty departure from the engagement party two nights earlier.
Urging herself not to overreact to his lengthy absense, she reached for the television remote and leaned against the headboard. For a while, she listened absently, her attention mainly focused on the front door. When at last the lock clicked, she shut off the TV, moved to the middle of the bed, and waited.
Alex didn’t head straight for the bedroom once he stepped into the hotel suite. First, he stopped for two drinks from the bar cart in the living room.
“What’s up?” he greeted his fiancée as though he’d said good-bye to her only moments earlier.
“Hey,” she barely whispered, taking in his wrinkled clothing and whiskered jaw. “Did you handle your business okay?” she asked, ordering herself not to bombard him with the questions she really wanted to ask.
Alex’s broad shoulders tensed visibly beneath the wrinkled cream shirt he wore. “It worked out fine,” he said, his back toward her.
“It seemed pretty serious,” she noted, looking down at the sheet twisted between her fingers.
“Worked out fine.”
Topaz nodded, still looking down at the sheet. “Anything you need or want to talk about?”
Alex’s deep voice was muffled as he walked into the closet. “No time to talk. We need to pack.”
“Pack?” Topaz parroted, confusion replacing the unease in her light eyes. “I don’t ... understand.”
“And I really don’t have time to explain it to you, but we need to get back to Charlotte tonight.
“We need or you need?” Topaz snapped, tiring of his attitude.
“Take your pick,” he countered.
“What is going on with you?”
“Topaz—”
“Wait a minute,” she called, raising her hands above her head. “You leave me at our engagement party to go ... handle some business, you’re gone all night and the next day and night without even a phone call, and I’m just supposed to go along with that?”
Alex slammed his fist against the closet doorjamb and fixed her with a warning glare.
Topaz refused to back down. “So now you’re mad?” she retorted.
“So I have to answer to you now, is that it?”
Topaz gasped, the surprise and hurt evident in her exquisite gaze. Alex blinked to mask the regret in his own eyes. He turned away, knowing what he’d said had been unfair and completely without merit. Instead of explaining himself, he slammed his suitcase to the bed and began to toss his belongings inside.
“Stay if you want to, but I’m on a plane that leaves in three hours,” he told her.
Topaz watched him for a while, hoping the rigid set of his shoulders would soften and that he would turn and talk to her. Finally, she acknowledged that would not happen and left the bed to collect her things
Topaz had accepted this decision as her only option. She didn’t necessarily agree with it. In fact, she dreaded going through with it. She had no choice, however. Alex had as much as told her where things stood between them.
Almost a week had passed since they’d returned to North Carolina from New York. Topaz had not seen or spoken to Alex once since then. From the airport, they went straight to her home. He set her bags just inside the foyer, pressed an almost obligatory kiss to her forehead, and said he would call her later. About three days passed before Topaz acknowledged that “later” meant never.
When she’d mustered as much courage as she could gather, she visited the Queen City Happening.
“I’m sorry Ms. Emerson, he’s not in just now, but—”
“All right then, I’ll just come back,” Topaz hurriedly decided, her courage fading fast.
“But wait,” Marci Evans called, standing behind her desk. “He was in a meeting, but it’s over now. He should be on his way back. I know there were some letters he wanted me to get out,” she explained.
Topaz debated, chewing her bottom lip while fidgeting with the long, flaring sleeves of her silver-gray dress. Steeling herself against the urge to back down, she nodded and let the woman escort her down the hall.
Alone in the sparsely equipped office (Alex wouldn’t allow his staff to place him somewhere more suitable), Topaz set her purse on a chair and began to pace. Her thoughts of New York, the engagement party, returned to the forefront of her mind. They were so happy ...
Then, like clockwork, Alex began to shut down his emotions. It had happened before, but this time ... after all they’d been through, all the things they’d said to each other ... Alex turning his back on her now was too much to take. A soft curse escaped her lips then. She still didn’t want to let him go. In spite of all that had happened, in spite of her hurt feelings, she wasn’t ready to let him walk out of her life.
Maybe he just needs a bit more time alone to think, she tried to convince herself. Maybe I shouldn’t—
The office door creaked open and Alex stepped inside. The expression he wore silenced all her doubts.
“How are you?” he greeted, speaking to her as though she were a business associate instead of friend, lover, future wife ...
Topaz swallowed her emotions and watched him stroll to the desk. “I won’t take up much of your time,” she promised, watching as he began to thumb through a stack of mail, “there’s just something I need to say.”
